More Love In LA
by Suki59
Summary: My human Sookie/Eric love story continues. Number 3 in my human series. Please read Love Isn't Easy and Love In L.A. before More Love In L.A. AH, AU, OOC. The sequel to this one is Love Still Isn't Easy.
1. Chapter 1

Charlaine Harris still owns these characters.

A/N: Please enjoy Love Isn't Easy and Love In L.A. before starting this story.

Sookie

By the time Eric graduated, he was already signed to direct his first feature film. That was pretty much unheard of in the film business, but he was a very special guy. At least I'd always thought so.

After Victor Madden and I came to an understanding, he left for Europe to shoot a film and made a promise that he would make time in his schedule to work with Eric on his first feature. After Victor left town, Alcide confided in me that I was the first woman to get through an entire promotion with Victor. Victor always insisted on having a female handler, but his behavior usually sent them running immediately. "You're tougher than I thought, Sookie." I hadn't felt very tough at the time though. Victor was a handful. Then Alcide also brought up that first pseudo-date that we'd had when I first worked for him. "I knew that you could handle yourself after that night I kissed you by your car. You confronted me the next morning and set me straight. A lot of young girls wouldn't be so up-front and I was impressed. And I appreciate that you didn't hold that against me. I know you'd told me that you had a boyfriend, but you can't blame a guy for taking a shot. Now that I know Eric though, I can see that you two are great together."

After my shining review at the end of my first year at the firm, I was given a raise and a promotion and was really proud of myself. I had learned a lot—some of it the hard way. I moved into a bigger desk and the new girl who took my old spot was a recent college graduate named Debbie Pelt. So while I was busy making interview schedules and writing press releases, Debbie did all the filing and paperwork that I had done when I was first hired. For some reason, she seemed to really dislike me from the start. I had a hard time figuring out why at first, and then I started noticing the way she looked at Alcide. She had the hots for him and apparently considered me a threat for some reason. Maybe it was because he and I worked so well together—I had shared my baptism by fire a-la-Victor-Madden with him and came out relatively unscathed. When I was around her I made sure to mention the fact that I had a boyfriend whenever I could to let her know that I was definitely not her competition.

That first summer in L.A. (well, my second summer, but Eric's first) Eric was planning on getting a bartending job so he could save money until his scholarship money came through in the fall, but DeCastro loved Eric's short film so much that Paramount bought the rights to the story and that earned Eric enough money to enroll in summer classes. Because he was so bright and such a hard worker, he was able to finish his degree after that next fall semester—an entire six months sooner than he had planned.

True to his word, Felipe DeCastro hired Eric for his first feature. Eric's vampire story had been expanded and re-written. It was now a full length script. Eric loved the changes and said that the writers were really great. I had regularly planted little stories in the trades hailing Eric as the next young genius director in Hollywood so he wouldn't be forgotten while he finished school. Victor Madden was cast as the male lead. Things were moving along well. Eric began pre-production as soon as he was out of school and the first thing he did once he'd made some money was move into an apartment of his own. We were both pretty excited when he found a place only a few short blocks from mine. Not only did it save us both some driving time, but it provided us with complete privacy which was heavenly. And of course, the neighborhood was a huge improvement. Eric felt so bad about my mugging even though it certainly was not his fault, and I know having to live in that bad area made him feel…I don't know…inadequate. I think it's a guy thing. Anyway, we were both happy when he found his new place.

Eric

Sometimes I feel like I am just the luckiest bastard on the planet. My dream girl and I had the perfect start to a perfect life in Los Angeles. I finished my masters and was hired by the very successful and powerful Felipe DeCastro to direct my first feature film (based on my own story idea, no less). DeCastro was producing it and hired Pam to be his assistant on the production. Thanks to my clever and ever-resourceful Sookie, Victor Madden was signed on as the male lead. (I'd just wanted to kick his ass, but I had to admit that Sookie's solution was much better.) And before I had even done anything, the press was claiming that I was the hot new director at Paramount—again, thanks to my smart and savvy girlfriend.

I was finally able to afford a decent apartment of my own in a good neighborhood. (I can't tell you the guilt I felt when I learned that Sookie had been mugged in front of my house near USC. Thank god she's okay—that's all I can say.) I was in pre-production at Paramount and things were going well.

And then the shit seemed to hit the fan.


	2. Chapter 2

Sookie

I first learned about my own notoriety through a phone call from Amelia. I was at work and she was calling from the supermarket by our apartment. "Have you heard about it yet? Have you seen it?"

"Um…seen what?"

"Shit. I hope you're sitting down. I'm at Pavilions in the check out line. Actually, I just got out of line to call you. Maybe I should just read you these headlines. Victor Madden steals lover of hot new director. Steamy Hollywood threesome: Madden in the middle. Vampire movie's hot love triangle. Should I go on?"

"What in the world…?"

"All the tabloids have you and Victor Madden and Eric all over them." Just then Alcide stuck his head in my office and motioned for me to get off the phone.

"Thanks Amelia. I have no idea what's going on, but I have to go. I'll call you later."

Alcide closed my door and sat across from my desk looking grim. "Have you heard?"

"I just did. What's going on?"

"First of all, I feel totally responsible and I am so sorry, Sookie. We'll clean this up, I swear. And I have fired Debbie."

"Why? What happened?"

"I'm not sure if you were aware of it or not, but Debbie Pelt and I have been involved for awhile."

"No, I didn't know."

"Well, I broke it off recently because she was so possessive and jealous and she didn't take it very well. She has always been really jealous of you in particular."

"Me? Whatever for?"

"Well, actually, that's my fault. I told her that I was interested in you when you first came to work here. I never really gave her the details, but she sort of assumed that we had dated. I know, I know. Stop looking at me like that. It wasn't exactly a date, but I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't hoped for more at the time. Anyway, all that's ancient history. Apparently, to get back at you—in her warped mind she thought you were her competition—she leaked a bunch of stories to the tabloids. Apparently she'd been working on this for quite awhile. She had collected a bunch of photos of you and Victor together when you were working for him. They were all just snapshots that his fans got at various events and some of them showed his hand on your butt. One was of him smiling and gesturing like he was going to grab your breasts. I know, he's a pig. It was probably fairly easy to get those shots together. Then she also had some of you and Eric at his student film premier, and there was even one of the three of you on the red carpet taken that night. I guess it's a slow news week. You're a big hit. I'm really sorry. You should probably call Eric and warn him. Ask him how he wants us to handle this. Naturally, I'll do whatever he wants—no charge, obviously. I'll put a call in to Victor as well."

"Okay."

"I'll leave you to it."

I picked up the phone and called Eric.

Eric

I was just coming out of a production meeting when Sookie called with the news of our infamy. She explained what had happened and assured me that Alcide was having nothing more to do with Debbie Pelt. I sent Hallow, my production assistant, out to buy copies of all the tabloids so we could see what we were dealing with. I asked Felipe to stick around until she returned to get his input.

The stories were fairly cheesy and I had to laugh at some of the photos. The ones of us at the screening were nice, but the candid shots of Sookie and Victor were pretty funny. He is such a pig. Poor Sookie had to put up with so much when she was working for him. I really hadn't realized the extent of how bad it was until afterwards. She was trying to deal with him on her own. Victor and I had come to terms with all of it since then and had developed a good working relationship. He apologized to both Sookie and me and promised to behave himself. Felipe called him about the tabloids and put him on speaker phone while we discussed it.

In our business, there's no such thing as bad press. The film was getting more hype which was a good thing. Victor looked like a Casanova, which was never a bad thing for a single Hollywood heartthrob. I looked kind of like a schmuck, but I didn't care. I knew the truth—that nothing happened between them. Sookie was the only one whose reputation was really on the line, and so we all decided to let her make the decision how to handle it.

I offered to leave the office early to pick her up, but she decided that it could wait until dinner. We met at my apartment and ordered take-out. While we ate, I explained how I felt and how Victor felt and what it would mean for the film. I asked her what her thoughts were and she sat and took a deep breath and pondered everything for a minute. Then she just shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess I don't really care."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I mean all those times Victor was pawing me and groping me—it was upsetting at the time, but now it's all water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned. He apologized to both of us. He certainly hasn't tried to pull anything since then. Once you and I got everything straightened out, it was no big deal. And in the end, it got him to sign on to do your film, so it really worked out great. I say let's just ignore it. It's not really hurting anything. And it sounds like it might even help the film."

"If that's what you want, love. I just want you to be happy."

"And I am." Then a slow smile spread across her face. "Let's take a bath."

"You always have the best ideas."


	3. Chapter 3

Sookie

The morning after the big tabloid scandal, Eric left for work before I did. I was snuggled back into bed, smelling his pillow and thinking about the steamy fun we'd had the night before. I kept giggling thinking of the naughty things that Eric had done with the rubber ducky I had given him for his birthday as a gag gift. I'll never look at it the same way. I hoped we hadn't flooded the downstairs apartment with our bath water sloshing into the floor. And I'd had no idea that Eric could hold his breath for so long. I kept blissfully replaying the whole bathtub event in my mind when my phone rang and interrupted my thoughts. It was Eric warning me that there was some press parked in front of his building. I made sure my makeup was perfect before I emerged and then they swarmed me as I walked to my car. I just smiled sweetly and waved.

After a few days, they found some other story that was more interesting and eventually, we were no longer on the cover of the tabloids. Alcide was full of apologies and promised lots of free p.r. work for Eric's film in exchange for the Debbie Pelt mess. Honestly, I wasn't really bothered by it but I didn't let him know that. He should be more careful who he gets involved with. This turned out fairly well, but it certainly could have gone another way. Not everyone would have been so understanding. I heard rumblings at the office that Alcide's father was not pleased with Alcide's lapse in judgment. I stayed out of it.

Eric's film started shooting and I braced myself for a lot of time alone. His pre-production hours had been fairly long, but once the film was in production, he worked 16 or 17-hour days every day. There were also a lot of night shoots because the movie was about vampires, so there were entire weeks where he would shoot from late afternoon until dawn and then sleep during the day. During those weeks, I would only get to see him on the weekends and even then he was a zombie at home and then would still go into the office some. I tried to take care of his personal stuff as much as I could. I did his grocery shopping, kept his apartment clean, that sort of thing. His production assistant, Hallow, also had a key to his place and dropped off his dry cleaning and ran some errands for him. It was a tough three months, but we got through it, and he was so pleased with the result of the filming as was Felipe DeCastro and the suits at Paramount.

Finally the film was in post-production and while Eric still had to be there for the editing process, the hours were better and he was less exhausted.

Things were going well for me in my job. Alcide and I were still working together well and of course Debbie was gone. Amelia was really happy. Eric had given her a small part in the film which got her her union card, so her agent was sending her out on better auditions and she had also booked a commercial. She was still working at Merlotte's and met a cute guy there named Tray. They hit it off immediately and she had practically moved in with him so I hardly ever saw her at home. I missed her, but was so happy for her that she had found a great guy and was happy.

Eric

Some days I just had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. My life was going better than I had ever hoped. I had my dream girl and things in that department couldn't have been any better. I also had my dream job and while it was exhausting and difficult, it was also thrilling and rewarding and more fun than I'd even imagined. The three-month shoot was tough. The hours were demanding and the pressure was extreme, but I had the best crew in the world and my cast was wonderful. Victor Madden was such a pro, and in spite of his lecherous personality, he was a great actor and now I could see why he was so in demand. DeCastro was very patient and helpful. He knew how inexperienced I was when he hired me and so he surrounded me with seasoned professionals on my crew, making my job a lot easier. He had become a great mentor to me and I was soaking up everything he taught me like a sponge. Pam was his assistant, so I got to see her a lot at work which was great because I had no time at all afterwards to do anything much except sleep. Sookie was so sweet and supportive and I made sure to tell her often how much I loved and appreciated her.

I was finally through with the long days of shooting and in the editing process. Everyone was pleased with the film's progress and I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel on the project. Then I hit my first serious snag and knew that I'd have to deal with the problem quickly and firmly.

It started with a phone call from Hallow. It was late on a Friday afternoon and she asked to see me in my office. I was surprised because it was not exactly her place to ask me to meet her anywhere. She was my assistant, and while she had always done a good job and was very efficient, I never really liked her much. She was always very serious and there was something a little creepy about her, but the studio had hired her and I never really had any specific complaints about her work.

I found her sitting at my desk which was very odd. When I came in, she jumped up and walked around the desk and stood, waiting for me to sit in my chair. I sat and looked at her, waiting to hear what was so important that she would ask to see me. She just handed me an envelope and stepped back with her hands behind her. I opened it and was shocked at what I read. I had suspected that she might me a little off, but this letter was downright scary. In it, she declared her love for me and said she was certain that I loved her back. It went on and on about how in our hearts we both knew that we belonged together. I read it to the end and then asked her to have a seat. She was smiling broadly and that gave me the creeps.

I explained to her that she was mistaken about my feelings for her and I apologized if I had ever given her any indication that we had anything other than a professional relationship. I watched her face fall as I gently but firmly let her know that I was absolutely uninterested in any kind of personal relationship with her. I was hoping that she would accept my rejection and apologize for the inappropriate overture, but instead she just asked if I would come and stay with her for a week and give her a chance, and then I would see how much she loved me and that we belonged together. That response made my next decision easy. I told her to clean out her desk and go home, and that her employment was terminated.

I went back to work with the editor, calling Sookie as I walked across the lot. We made plans to meet at my place for dinner and I was looking forward to a fairly relaxing weekend with my beautiful and wonderful girlfriend.

At the end of the day, I stuck my head into Felipe's office and said goodnight to Pam. I signed out at the security desk as I walked through the gate. I crossed the street to the parking garage and as I entered the garage and saw my car everything went black.


	4. Chapter 4

Sookie

It was a Friday and had been a long week. I was looking forward to having a nice quiet dinner with Eric. I went home and took a bath and put on something pretty before driving over to his apartment. I had a key of course, so I went on in and waited for him. I watched a little T.V. and stretched out on the sofa. I fell asleep and when I woke up I checked my watch. Eric was late. He was over an hour late which was not like him. I tried his cell phone but just got his voice mail. I figured he must have gotten hung up at work, but was surprised that he hadn't called. I was starving and so dug around in his fridge and found something to snack on. I tried his cell again. Then I called Pam. She said that he had left the office hours ago. Then I started to worry.

I grabbed my purse and headed out to the car. I thought illogically that maybe we were supposed to meet at my place instead and hoped that I had just made a mistake and that maybe his phone battery was just dead. I was just grasping at straws trying to control the panic that I was starting to feel. I turned the corner and was driving down my street when I saw him running along the sidewalk. I was so relieved that he was okay, but why was he running? I pulled over and rolled my window down and called his name. He looked at me with panic in his eyes and kept running. I pulled ahead of him and parked in a driveway and got out of my car. He stopped in front of me and looked at me blankly.

"Eric. What are you doing?"

"You know me?"

"Of course I do. Are you okay? What's going on?"

"My name's Eric?" He turned around and looked around as if trying to get his bearings and that's when I noticed the blood that was matted in his hair on the back of his head. I gasped and stepped up to touch him and he turned and jumped back in fear.

"I'm sorry. You're hurt. Come and get in the car, okay?"

"Do I know you?" I was starting to get really scared. He clearly had no idea who I was, who he was.

"Yes, you know me. Now come on with me." He let me take his hand and lead him to the car. I put him in the passenger seat and walked around to get in to drive.

I drove straight to the Cedars emergency room. I walked a very quiet and still stunned Eric in and filled out all the paperwork for him. I couldn't go back into the exam rooms with him so I waited. I called Pam to let her know what was going on. By the time she got there, I had already spoken to the doctor.

"What happened? Have you heard anything?"

"Yes, I just spoke to the doctor. He has amnesia, of all things. Apparently he suffered a blow to the head that was severe enough to cause memory loss." I started to cry.

"Is he conscious?"

"Yes. Well, he was when I brought him in anyway. He was just confused and didn't know who I was or what his name was even. They're running some tests now and will come to talk to me again soon, I hope."

Pam stayed with me and held my hand and finally after several more hours the doctor came back out to give his report. Eric could go home with me but needed to be watched closely for a couple of days. I was to make an appointment for him with a neurologist on Monday. The doctor explained what I might expect and it sounded so scary that Eric wouldn't know me. The police had been called because it was a real possibility that Eric had been the victim of a crime.

Pam spoke to the police and had more information than Eric did obviously. She was going to take them over to Paramount so they could take a look around Eric's office and speak to the studio security to try and piece together what had happened. I took a very scared and tired Eric to my car and drove him home.

As we pulled onto his street I saw the press camped out. I pulled over to watch to see what was going on when my cell phone rang. It was Alcide. He had already heard that Eric had been attacked and asked if he was okay.

"How in the world did you know about this so quickly?"

"The press is ever vigilant, Sookie. Did you take him to Cedars?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that's where a lot of celebrities go, so it almost always gets leaked to the media whenever anyone of any interest is brought there. Eric's still a hot item even though most of that Victor Madden stuff has died down."

"Thanks for calling Alcide. I'll keep you posted. He's with me now and he'll be fine. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

I turned around and drove us back to my apartment and thankfully, no one was there. During the Victor Madden scandal there was media in front of Eric's building for days, but there were never any people in front of mine. I don't know why they didn't know my address but I was grateful for it as I pulled into my parking garage.

I took Eric up to my apartment and fixed him something to eat. He let me look at his head where a little bandage hid a few stitches on his crown. I explained to him that he had been hurt and that's why he was confused, but that he would get better soon. (I hoped I wasn't lying.)

He watched me do the dishes and then I told him that I was tired and needed to get some sleep.

"Can I stay with you?"

"Of course." I got ready for bed and then took him into the bathroom and showed him which one his toothbrush was and left him his privacy. When he came into the bedroom, I was already in my nightgown and under the covers.

He stripped down to his boxers and got into bed. I turned out the light as he said, "What's your name?"

"Sookie. Sookie Stackhouse."

"Thank you, Sookie."

"Welcome, Eric." It broke my heart how lost he seemed. I wanted to hold him but knew that he may be frightened if I was too assertive so I just found his hand under the covers and his fingers clasped mine. It had been a harrowing night and I wasn't sure if I could sleep, but then that's just what I did, holding hands with the stranger that was my boyfriend lying beside me.


	5. Chapter 5

Sookie

I woke the following morning to the smell of bacon. I found a cheerful Eric in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

"I hope you don't mind. I was hungry. Would you like some eggs?"

"Sure, thanks."

"Apparently, I haven't forgotten how to cook." His smile was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. I was still more than a little worried about him. After we ate, I showed him which drawer held some of his extra clothes that he kept at my apartment and he got dressed while I called Amelia and Alcide and caught them up to speed. Pam beeped in while I was talking to Amelia and she was on her way to my place already.

When she arrived, the three of us sat in the living room. I explained to Eric who she was to him. She gave us the report of what the police found last night, which wasn't much. There were security cameras all over the Paramount lot of course and they showed Eric signing out at the gate and then entering the parking garage, but then he disappeared into a blind spot and only reappeared about half an hour later running out of the garage alone.

Nothing seemed to be missing from his office. His car was still in it's parking space. His wallet was still in his pants when I found him, so they didn't suspect that he was the victim of a robbery attempt. Pam gave me the detective's number and I called him while Pam and Eric waited and watched me.

Detective Bellefleur said he'd already spoken to Felipe DeCastro as well as other office staff members last night and this morning. But Eric's assistant, Hallow, had not returned his calls and someone was going to her house today to speak to her. She was seen entering the parking garage moments before Eric, but was also lost in the blind spot. There was some concern that she may have also been a victim and so every effort was being made to find her.

I left Pam to stay with Eric while I drove over to his apartment and packed a bag for him. We had all decided that it would be better for him to stay at my house while he recuperated. I didn't tell him about the media camp at his house—he didn't need to know. I emerged with a suitcase and heard the cameras clicking away as I passed the press members to get to my car. I made sure no one was following me before I drove back to my place.

We plugged Eric's phone in when I pulled his charger out of the suitcase. He had the two messages from me from the previous night and then some this morning from Felipe and a few others from work. I called the detective back and let him know. He came over and very gently questioned Eric, but could see that Eric would be no help to his own case. The detective listened to Eric's messages himself and took some notes and then left.

Pam went to Eric's office later and retrieved his laptop. The police had checked his email the night before, but saw nothing suspicious. We set it up on the dining room table, but Eric seemed confused and frustrated by it, so we closed it and spent the rest of the afternoon watching a movie on T.V.

Amelia came over and packed her own bag and offered to stay with Tray for awhile. I was grateful. Pam stayed for dinner and the three of us had a nice evening all things considered. After she left, I got ready for bed and then Eric went to brush his teeth. He slipped into bed with me and I held my breath. I was lying on my back when I felt his arm tentatively reach over and rest across my waist. There was a moment of tension, and then we both relaxed. Soon I was fast asleep.

The following morning I was up early making calls for Eric. Felipe said not to worry about work. They were at a point in editing where they could work without Eric and then they could catch him up to speed when he had recovered. No one knew when that might be, so we were all politely optimistic that it would be soon. I told Alcide that I would not be in on Monday and I'd let him know day to day whether or not I was available if that was okay. I could get some work done from home and he said that would be fine. Detective Bellefleur asked whether or not I knew of any kind of personal relationship between Eric and Hallow. She was still missing. I wasn't sure where he was going with his questions but I assured him that Eric was nothing more than her boss. I told him that Eric and I were in a committed relationship. I hung up and started to make breakfast when I realized that Eric was standing in the dining room. "Good morning, Eric. Are you hungry?" I set the plates down on the table.

"We're in a committed relationship." He said it as more of a statement than a question.

"Yes." He just nodded and then we ate our breakfast.

I cleaned the kitchen and then showed Eric where he could put his clothes in my closet. I left him to his task as I headed into the bathroom to shower.

I was just rinsing the shampoo out of my hair when the door opened and a very naked and visibly happy-to-see-me Eric stepped into the shower with me. He took the soap from it's dish and started to wash my arms. "We've made love before, right?" He raised each arm and washed down my sides.

"Yeah."

He started to smile as he lathered my breasts. He returned the soap to it's holder and went back to massaging and studying my breasts. "My god, you're beautiful. How did I ever get so lucky?"

"Well, you're pretty beautiful yourself, you know. I think we're both pretty lucky." This time it was my turn to take the soap. I started washing his chest, his arms. I reached around to his gorgeous butt and took my time. I watched his eyes close in ecstasy as I stepped closer to reach him better. Then when he took the soap again, we both held it together and worked up a lather. There was a twinkle in his eye as he put it back and we both reached for the really good stuff at the same time. Little moans escaped us both as we let the feelings wash over us. He was so hard and I'm sure I was very wet. I lifted my chin as his lips crashed into mine and our tongues began to dance. We stayed like that for a long luxurious time, kissing and touching and rubbing until he accidentally leaned forward and pushed my face under the shower spray. I choked and sputtered and we both started laughing. Then I stepped back to rinse off and he did the same. We grabbed our towels and dried each other off before he led me by the hand back to the bedroom.

I pushed him onto his back and he centered himself on the bed. I climbed onto him and put him in my mouth as he kind of growled and laced his fingers through my wet and tangled hair. I may have started off our relationship inexperienced, but time and practice had taught me exactly how to please this particular man. I was lost in my very pleasant task and he seemed surprised and grateful for what I was accomplishing. I could tell he was getting close when he gently pushed my head away and sat up a little. I looked at him questioningly.

"Can I come inside of you?"

"Of course you can." I straddled him and he pushed in, making us both moan loudly. We found a fast strong rhythm together and soon his thumb found my magic spot and I knew I would be seeing stars very soon. He was getting close as well and just before we went over the edge together, he said, "Oh my god, I think I love you."

As I was coming down from my high, I leaned forward and giggled into his neck. "Yes, as a matter of fact, you love me very much." And we both laughed a little, still panting heavily.


	6. Chapter 6

Eric

I feel like I was born running down the road. Apparently I have amnesia. It's an odd state of being. I seem to know things like how to make scrambled eggs, but the woman taking care of me was a stranger to me, and yet we were obviously not strangers. It was bizarre.

For the first couple of days I was slowly adjusting to my life. I met Sookie and Pam and Amelia and had my head stitched up and spoke to a police detective. They all seem to think that I'd been the victim of some crime. Everyone was very kind to me and I could tell they were walking on eggshells around me. I didn't blame them. I did feel oddly fragile. Like I was scared of something all the time. Like what I wanted to think about was just out of reach. Sookie said that it was temporary, and I hoped she knew what she was talking about.

She'd been so kind to me. I wasn't really certain what we were to each other before, but clearly she was comfortable enough to allow me to sleep in the bed with her, and she wasn't afraid of me. I had some clothes here in a drawer, so I'd obviously stayed here before. Then one morning I overheard her on the phone telling someone that we were in a committed relationship. She confirmed it when I asked her about it. I studied her a little closer after that and wondered how I ever got so lucky to have this woman in a serious relationship with me. She was kind and bright and I couldn't imagine anyone more beautiful. She showed me where to put my clothes in her closet and when I did, I inhaled and smelled her clothes hanging in there and they smelled so good. Maybe they triggered something in me—maybe a glimmer of a memory, because I was immediately hard. I heard her getting into the shower and so I stripped and went in to join her.

I was right about her being beautiful. She was amazing and so loving. After we showered, we made love and she seemed to know just what I wanted and anticipated my every desire without my having to do or say anything. I could not have imagined a better lover. I immediately felt like I was falling in love with her and told her so and then we both laughed because obviously I did love her or we wouldn't be together. I had so many questions for her but didn't want to just bombard her with them. Plus I wanted to enjoy her company and selfishly just wanted to make love all day with this treasure of a goddess I had all to myself.

Sookie

Eric was insatiable, and frankly his lust only fueled my own. Once we had apparently gotten over that awkward hump (no pun intended), all he wanted to do was make love. And who am I to deny the man what he wanted? We spent that whole day in bed and I wondered if I would be walking funny the next day. Finally we fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms that night and it felt just like old times to me. I wondered what it must feel like to Eric.

Monday morning I called the neurologist and was lucky that they'd had a cancellation. We had an appointment for three that afternoon. Pam picked me up and we drove over to Paramount to retrieve Eric's car. He promised to stay at my house and behave himself while we were gone. I drove his car back to his apartment building and parked it, and then walked the few blocks back to my house. I was wearing my hair tucked up under a baseball cap and kept my sunglasses on. The press members were still camped out in the front while I slipped out the back of the garage and hopped a fence as I headed home.

Dr. Ludwig had already seen Eric's test results from when he was at the Cedars emergency room. She ran a few more tests and then spoke to us together. She felt certain that Eric's amnesia was temporary and that his memory would most likely return in time. He had been taking Tylenol for the headaches and they were better already. She said she saw no reason to suspect any permanent damage and sent us home. I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding.

I was relieved and grateful for Dr. Ludwig's prognosis and felt so much better until I pulled onto my street and spotted the press in front of my house. I guess they figured out my address after all. I hurried Eric past them and once we were inside I explained that he was of interest to the media because he was a hot up and coming director and people were fascinated with his being injured. I opened his laptop and found one of the old articles that had been written after his student film screening. He loved the photo of the two of us all dressed up on the red carpet and read the article with interest. I explained to him that Victor was the star of his film and Felipe was the producer and that Pam worked for Felipe now. He silently took it all in and read the article a couple of times. He seemed a little more open to the idea of using the laptop so I asked if he would mind if we checked his email. I was planning on just forwarding everything to Pam so she could direct the emails to whom ever was handling Eric's work while he was out. But when I opened the page, my heart stopped.

There were hundreds of new emails and it seemed that ninety-nine percent of them were from Hallow. Eric asked who she was and I told him she was his assistant and had been missing since his accident. I started opening the emails and each one was creepier than the one before. They all declared her love for Eric and asked when they could be together. I skipped down to the most recent ones and in them she wrote about how she was going to kill herself if they couldn't be together. Eric was reading over my shoulder and I turned to look at him and he looked so scared. "Do you think I was seeing her?"

"No, honey. I know that you weren't. Don't even worry about that. But we have to tell the police about this."

I forwarded the emails to Detective Bellefleur as he'd requested and within the hour we got a visit from a Detective Beck who was on what they called the stalker unit. He wasn't exactly forthcoming with information but he did say that Hallow was still missing and that they had evidence that she was romantically interested in Eric. After interviewing people at the production company though, the police were convinced that she was not involved with Eric and may be delusional about the romance. The emails confirmed their theory. He said that the fact that she was threatening suicide was a very serious element. Apparently, when these types plan on killing themselves, they often also plan on taking the object of their desire with them. When they get to that suicidal point, they are considered extremely dangerous.

We promised to let him know if we heard anything else and he was set up to receive all of Eric's emails. When he left, I called Pam and told her what was going on. She was shocked but said that Hallow had always seemed a little off to her and that she hoped I knew that Eric would have never encouraged her. I assured her that I wasn't worried about that at all. I trusted Eric completely.


	7. Chapter 7

Sookie

For the next few days, Eric and I stayed home. We were prisoners in my apartment because of the media in front of my building. I went out a couple of times to the store or to run an errand or two and made Eric promise that he would stay inside while I was gone. He asked one day why we couldn't go to his home and then asked where he lived. It broke my heart to see him still so confused. I showed him the address on his driver's license and told him where it was—just a few blocks away from my building. But I also explained that there were press people in front of his building as well, so we might as well stay in my place.

I was able to work from home some and kept in touch with Alcide. I showed Eric how to use his laptop and he mostly just surfed the net reading. I wondered how much was new to him and what it must be like to discover so much at once. I showed him how to use google and then how to send email. He wrote his aunt and kept her up to date on his progress (I had called her right after he was injured). He stayed in touch with Pam and Felipe.

We spent a great deal of our time in bed during this time. I guess for Eric it was like discovering a whole new world. For me it was just enjoying his newfound enthusiasm. He had always been an incredible lover but he was even better if that was possible. One day we were enjoying the feel of post coital bliss when he asked me why I trusted that he had not been involved with Hallow. I told him that we had been committed to each other for a long time and that we had a solid relationship and trusted each other completely.

"Was that always the case?"

"Um…no, actually. We had a little glitch in the beginning when we first moved out here, but we worked through it and then we were solid as a rock after that." I watched him as he thought about that. "Don't worry about it sweetie. I promise we're good. Nobody could ever come between us now."

Eric

That week was a week of discovery. I spent most of my time discovering how much I loved making love to Sookie. I just couldn't get enough of her and she seemed to feel the same way. We also discovered who had apparently attacked me and caused my head injury and it was a woman who had worked as my assistant. The police seemed to feel that she was a very dangerous person. I also learned how to use my computer and spent hours just looking things up and reading. It seemed that the more I learned, the more questions I had. It was so frustrating trying to remember things.

Sookie told me that we had apparently had what she called a glitch in our trust when we had first moved to Los Angeles. I wanted to ask her more about that but then stopped myself. Did I really want to know more? What if I discovered something really painful? What if we had cheated on each other? I honestly wondered if I'd had some sort of relationship with this Hallow woman, but Sookie was convinced that I had not. I was amazed at her certainty.

I couldn't imagine being certain about anything at that point. I wasn't even certain what I did for a living or where I lived. It was a tough week.

At the end of the week, Sookie needed to go into her office to take care of some things. (I wasn't really clear on what she did for a living either and felt foolish asking her about it.) While she was away, I was reading on the computer and trying to remember—my usual occupations. I decided to just google myself and see what I could learn. The first few items were articles about the movie I was working on and my relationship with Felipe DeCastro who was apparently a big producer. Then there were a few items about my student film on which the current film was based. Then I found some articles about me and Sookie and Victor Madden and I froze. I could feel a lump in my throat as I read them and my stomach turned when I saw the photos of Victor and Sookie together. This must be what she had been referring to when she spoke of our glitch in trust. Fuck. She had had an affair with the actor that I ended up hiring for my film. What kind of a schmuck was I anyway? I knew that he was fucking my girlfriend and then I gave him a job? And then worked with him every day? And we were all okay with this? Jesus.

I stood up and paced the room, my head spinning with images of Sookie with this man. I wondered how upset I had been about this the first time and cursed the fact that I was now having to relive it. I had to get some air. The walls were closing in on me. I took out my wallet and read my address again and thought of how Sookie had told me to get to my apartment building. Then I grabbed my keys and left. Suddenly I needed to go home.

I passed the people on the sidewalk in front of Sookie's as they took photos of me, but none of them followed me. I walked the few blocks and knew I was on the right street when I saw the small camp of people in front of another building. They all shot photos of me and asked me questions that I ignored as I climbed the steps, pulled my key out and opened my door. I wanted to scream with frustration when I walked inside. Absolutely nothing looked familiar and this was my own home. Fuck.

Sookie

At the end of the week, I went into the office to take care of a few things that couldn't be done from home. I was wrapping things up at the end of the day when Alcide stuck his head in my door. "How's it going?"

"Okay, I guess. He's still the same. No memory."

"Jeez, I'm sorry, Sookie. Please let me know if there's anything I can do, okay? I mean I'm sure you've got it all covered between your taking care of him and his assistant taking care of his place."

I felt the blood drain from my face. "What?"

"You know, that girl that works for him. I know what the press is saying, but we all know it's a bunch of crap. I'm assuming she's just watching his place, right?"

"Hallow?"

"Yeah, I think that's her name."

"The press is saying something?"

"Um…yeah. Where have you been?"

In bed with my boyfriend, actually, blissfully ignorant of the rest of the world. "Um, I guess I haven't been keeping up. Do you have any of those articles around here?"

"Yeah, I'm sure I do." He stuck his head out the door and asked someone to bring him the day's tabloids.

I snatched them from his hands and read the first headline. Northman's Revolving Door: Sookie's out, Hallow's in. There were two photographs. One was of me walking out of his building carrying a suitcase—it was his suitcase that I had picked up the day after he had been attacked. The next photo was of Hallow carrying a suitcase into the same door. I thanked Alcide and ran out the door. I called Eric from the car. He answered but sounded upset.

"Hi honey. I'm on my way home. Make sure the door is locked, okay? I just found out that Hallow might be staying at your apartment. She doesn't know where I live though, so we don't…"

"No, she's not. I'm at my apartment now."

"What?"

"I came over to my apartment. I found out about you and Victor Madden and I just had to get out of your place. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Victor Madden? What about me and Victor? Listen, it doesn't matter. We'll talk about that later, okay? You need to leave. I don't think it's safe there sweetie. Go out front and make sure the photographers can see you and I'll be there in two minutes. She won't do anything with people around. I'm almost there. Are you going out front?"

"No, Sookie. I'm fine. I want to talk to you about this Victor Madden crap."

"Okay, okay. I'm parking now. I'll be right up. I have a key." I hung up and called Detective Beck and told him what I'd read in the tabloids and asked him to come over to Eric's just to check it out even though Eric said she wasn't there.

I breezed past the photographers, shutters clicking away, and took a deep breath before I opened Eric's door.


	8. Chapter 8

Eric

I went from room to room in my apartment but nothing felt familiar. I stood and looked into my closet, but they might as well have been the clothes of a stranger. I was so frustrated. I had hoped that coming here would somehow make me feel better, but I was just as lost here as I'd been at Sookie's. I pictured those photos again of Sookie and Victor Madden as he groped her and wanted to kill somebody. Had we worked through this? How in the hell had I been able to forgive her? I was so upset and tired of feeling confused.

When she called I debated about answering it, but then I decided that I just wanted to confront her and get it out in the open. She seemed completely uninterested in my revelation, like it was no big deal, and instead kept harping on the fact that Hallow was in my apartment. Clearly, no one else was here. She agreed to come over to talk to me and so I waited in the living room and stood as she let herself in.

Sookie

I found Eric standing in the living room. "Thank god you're okay. I called Detective Beck and he's on his way over. Listen honey, the tabloids have pictures of her coming here with a suitcase. I'm assuming it's a current picture. Would she ever have come here before with a suitca…Oh honey, I'm sorry, of course you wouldn't know that. I'm so sorry. But let's go just in case, okay?" I started pulling on his hand towards the door. He wouldn't budge and that's when I noticed that his eyes were red and I thought that he may have been crying. "Eric, are you okay? Did something happen? Did you remember something?"

"Sookie, I found out about you and Victor Madden." Then he laughed kind of cynically. "I guess I should say that I found out about the two of you again."

"What are you talking about? Let's please at least go out front and wait for the detective." I kept pulling his hand, but his feet were planted.

"I googled myself. And saw all the articles…" I realized that he had found the articles that Debbie Pelt had planted about our little love triangle even though there never was actually any love triangle. It meant nothing to either of us at the time, but clearly Eric didn't realize that it wasn't true now. I was just about to interrupt him to explain it when we both heard a key in the door. I turned to face the door still holding Eric's hand as he stood behind me. My mouth fell open as Hallow emerged with a huge smile on her face.

"Eric! I'm home!" Then her smile faded. "What's she doing here?" I watched her reach into her purse and it was as if it was all happening in slow motion. I saw the gun and knew she would shoot me by the look in her eye. It was pure hate. I heard the bang and instinctively put my hands up to my chest, expecting…I don't know…pain? Blood? I hadn't even registered that Eric had jumped in front of me until I felt him fall onto my feet. I crouched down and screamed as I saw the blood bubbling from his shoulder. I put my hand over the wound and pressed down, wanting the flow to stop. I never even registered the other activity in the room until someone touched my shoulder and I looked up. There were three police officers in the room. Hallow was on her stomach with an officer on top of her, holding her hands behind her back. Detective Beck was talking to me but the words weren't making sense. I could hear a woman crying and then realized that it was me. I looked back down to Eric and pressed as hard as I could on the wound and thought how pale he looked. His eyes were still open and he turned his head and looked at me. His voice was just a whisper. "I love you."

Eric

Sookie was babbling about Hallow and trying to pull me to the door to go outside and wait for the police, but I wanted to talk about Victor Madden and find out what had happened. Suddenly the front door opened and some woman with a crazy smile on her face said, "Eric! I'm home!" and then pulled a gun out of her purse, aiming it at Sookie. I jumped in front of Sookie and felt the force of the hit in my shoulder. I was down on the floor and I was vaguely aware of the police coming in and I saw the crazy woman on the floor in front of me. I heard Sookie crying and felt her pushing on my shoulder. I looked up to her and realized that why I had been mad at her before didn't matter any more. Everything that had happened before didn't matter. All that mattered was that I loved her right this very minute and so I told her so.

"I love you too." She was sobbing and her voice sounded far away.

"It doesn't matter about Victor…"

"No, no sweetie. That was all a mistake. Nothing happened." She brushed her hair out of her face as she bent down closer to me and I watched the blood swipe across her cheek and cling to her hair. "I would never cheat on you baby. That was just press crap and none of it was true. I am yours, Eric."

Her voice sounded funny, but I understood her and smiled at her. I wanted to hold her and tell her that I loved her again and kiss her, but the room was getting dark and I was so cold. I closed my eyes and the last thing I felt was the touch of her lips on mine and I thought, oh good. And then everything was black.


	9. Chapter 9

Sookie

The ride to the hospital was a blur. Paramedics worked frantically on Eric. I just watched in horror, wondering if he would survive. I called Pam from the waiting room and told her that he was in surgery. I also called his aunt.

After several excruciatingly slow hours, the surgeon finally came out and told us that Eric was in the recovery room and stable. We couldn't see him yet because we weren't relatives. I told him that Eric's only living relative was in another state, and that I was his girlfriend, but rules are rules. The most important thing was that Eric was stable and his prognosis was good. I explained to the surgeon about Eric's head injury and amnesia, but he had already retrieved his records and knew about the previous visit to the emergency room.

I asked if he was awake yet, and he was. Pam and I held hands and cried together, relieved that he was going to be okay.

Eric

I woke with the most intense pain I had ever known. A woman was speaking to me and asking on a scale of one to ten, how bad my pain was. I managed to say eight because I didn't want to seem like a pussy, but it was a ten. Within minutes though, it was better and I was out again.

The next time I woke, I was aware of what had happened to me. I remembered that I'd been shot and that Sookie had been there. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a hospital bed. A nurse came over and I asked for Sookie. She asked if Sookie was my wife and I said, "girlfriend." I couldn't believe that she couldn't come in just because of a piece of paper. I sort of went in and out of consciousness for what seemed like a long time, missing Sookie terribly, and then I was asleep.

I knew that Sookie was in the room before I opened my eyes. I could smell her or sense her or something. My first thought was that I would marry her and I never wanted to be apart from her again. I wondered why we weren't married already. Then she could have been with me earlier. I opened my eyes.

"Why aren't we married?"

She started crying and squeezed my hand until it kind of hurt. "I don't know baby. How do you feel?"

"Like I need a wife." And then I was out again, but I knew she was near and so I slept peacefully.

Sookie

They finally moved Eric into a regular room and so I could stay with him. He looked so fragile and I was so overwhelmed with relief and gratitude that he was alive. I pulled a chair up to his bed and held his hand. Pam leaned against the wall and watched him sleep. The nurse spoke to us and explained his condition. He would be kind of in and out for the rest of the night because of the anesthesia, but he was doing well and the surgery went well. As it got late, Pam left and promised to be back in the morning. She had left a message for Eric's aunt letting her know that he would be okay.

I was almost asleep myself when I was awakened by a feeling—like maybe Eric was awake—but his eyes were still closed. I took his hand in mine again as his eyes opened and he asked why we weren't married. I was so grateful that he was awake and talking. I started to cry and asked how he felt and he said something else about being married. I figured he was a little loopy from the drugs. Then he was back to sleep.

The following morning I was back at Cedars by Eric's side. He looked like he'd been run over by a train, but he smiled weakly when I came in the room. "Sookie."

"Hi sweetie. How are you feeling this morning?"

"A little drunk. So, tell me what happened."

"You were shot."

"Oh, I know. Not that. Tell me what happened about all those articles about you and Victor Madden."

I was shocked that he even remembered that. It was as if that conversation hadn't been interrupted by a crazy woman and a bullet. "Oh, okay. A woman at work who hated me planted those stories, and we decided to ignore them because we knew that they were nothing and also because it gave you press for the film." It was dawning on me that he obviously still had amnesia.

"So what was the glitch in our trust that you mentioned?"

I explained in detail all about the silly week-long break up that we'd had and how nothing ever actually happened with me and Victor or with him and Selah. It was a little odd, but he really seemed to want to hear all about our previous relationship. I told him stories until he got tired and then I read or worked on my laptop while he slept. That was how we passed those first few days.

Eric

I was finally well enough to go home. Sookie had moved my stuff back into my apartment and brought over her own things so she could take care of me while I recovered at home. She worked from home mostly the first week, but then I could be on my own most of the day after that. I was pretty bored but I read a lot and watched T.V. Every day I felt a little stronger physically, but I was still frustrated about my confusion and inability to remember anything before I was running down the street when Sookie found me. Every night I would lie awake while she told me stories of how we met and what had happened to us before I lost my memory. The more I learned about her, the more I loved her.

I wanted to make love to her, but was so frustrated because of my recovery. I discovered that the real sex organ is the brain because the mind was willing when the body was not. I had always been healthy and strong and it was bad enough that my memory was impaired. When my body was weak and broken as well, I was very depressed. Having Sookie there was the only thing that got me through that period and I appreciated her even more if that was possible.

Sookie

Physically, Eric's recovery was going well. I could see that he was a little stronger every day. Mentally, I was still extremely worried about him. He showed no signs of regaining his memory whatsoever. I knew how much he loved what he did and how hard he'd worked for it in school and wondered how he could return to it in this state. Would he have to find something else to do? Since his attack, I had been taking care of his bills and I could see that eventually we'd have to depend on my salary alone if he was unable to work, and I knew that would be tough financially, not to mention how his ego would take it. I was careful to never mention money and hoped he wasn't worrying about it.

Eric seemed to want to hear about us all the time. He was curious about how we met and finally got together in college—on graduation day, no less. I slept with him every night but was worried about hurting his shoulder. He wanted to kiss and cuddle still, but I was very careful and always mindful of his stitches. Finally one night I asked if he felt well enough for me to go down on him. Of course he said yes, but I made him promise to interrupt me if he felt any pain. He didn't. He wanted to reciprocate but I told him I wasn't getting anywhere near that shoulder yet. He said that he would have even more of an incentive to get well. We were lying together, holding hands when he asked, "Why aren't we married?"

"You asked me that in the hospital. Do you remember? Right when you were coming out of the anesthesia."

"Yeah, I remember. It made me mad that you couldn't be with me in the recovery room because we weren't married. But, really, why aren't we? Have we ever talked about it?"

"Um…not really. I mean we've discussed that in general we hope to be married some day, have children."

"Both of us?"

"Yeah."

"Then why do we live in separate apartments? We obviously love each other. I love waking up to you every day, having you with me every night. I never want to spend a day without you. Did I always feel like that?"

"I think so. But we are still so young and we have just been so busy getting our careers started. Sometimes it felt like we just didn't have time for each other. But the love has always been there."

"Then let's get married. Yes, we're young, but it sounds like we've loved each other for a long time and it feels solid to me. It makes no sense that we're not married already. Is that what you want? I know it's what I want."

"Yes, I do want it, but sweetie, we shouldn't make any huge decisions like that until you're all better." I meant mentally, but wasn't certain if he got that.

"Okay. Again, more reason to get better faster."


	10. Chapter 10

Sookie

Eric's recovery was coming along. You'd be amazed at how many sexual positions there are that don't involve the left shoulder. Just like before Eric was shot, he couldn't seem to get enough of me. And I was more than happy to be the recipient of his adoration. Just like the original Eric, my new Eric loved the story of when I snuck into his room in college. Funny how that one affected him no matter what. I was guaranteed a wild ride whenever I brought it up. So I mentioned it frequently.

He was able to go out with his arm in a sling and wasn't as bored as he'd been when he was stuck in the apartment all day. His strength was returning, but his memory was not.

He talked a lot about getting married. I was thrilled about the idea, of course, but knew that we should wait until his memory had returned. I tried not to think about the possibility that his memory would not return. We would lie in bed, usually after mind-blowing sex and whisper about the wedding we wanted and where we would live and how many children we would have. I was so happy at the prospect of a rosy future with the man I love, but the amnesia was always a dark cloud over my optimism. But I kept that little tidbit to myself.

Eric

I was so glad to be able to finally get out of the house. My strength was returning and our sex life was back on track, but I was still bored at home all the time. Some nights we stayed at Sookie's so she could catch up on her laundry and we'd clean her apartment together. It wasn't fair to leave it all on Amelia. On one such night I was sitting on Sookie's bed watching her beautiful behind as she dug in the floor of the closet to get to her laundry basket. She was squatting down and lost her balance and fell backwards in slow motion on her butt and we both started laughing. I scooped her up with my one good arm and held her in my lap and said, "I'll never be happier than I am right now."

She seemed kind of surprised but then said, "I feel the same way." The kiss was sweet and started slowly. Sookie began kissing down my neck, mindful of my shoulder, of course. Then she stood and slowly removed her clothes, one piece at a time. I stood and she helped me with my pants. We left my shirt because the sling was a lot of trouble to get off and we were clearly on a mission. Sookie pushed me back onto the bed and helped me get comfortably situated in the center. She kissed her way up my body and as soon as I could reach her, my fingers found her ready for me. She lay beside me while I brought her to climax with my one fully functioning hand. Apparently, it functioned just fine. Then she climbed on top of me, sat down onto my erection and started to ride me while massaging her own breasts. Seeing how turned on she was sitting up like that was amazing. I could tell she was getting close again when she started grinding onto me, rubbing herself into me. Then she reached down and grabbed my hips as she came, never breaking eye contact. As she was recovering, she leaned forward, carefully avoiding my shoulder of course and started to really pump me hard. I relaxed into the ecstasy of knowing that my turn was next and let go. I held her hip to me with my hand as I came with full force telling her how much I loved her. Then I repeated myself. "I'll never be happier than I am right now."

Sookie

The district attorney had kept in touch with Eric regarding Hallow's situation. She had pleaded guilty in exchange for serving her sentence in a mental health facility rather than a prison. We were fine with that. She obviously needed treatment and we were satisfied that she would no longer be a threat to us as long as she was locked up somewhere. We debated about it, but finally decided that we wanted to attend her hearing where her plea would be announced and her sentence read.

We sat in the courtroom holding hands while the procedure unfolded before us. I watched Hallow turn and scan the courtroom and when her eyes landed on Eric, she smiled that same crazy smile I'd seen before she shot him. It made me shiver and I wondered how Eric must feel. After the judge read her sentence and hit the gavel, we watched as Hallow was taken away, disappearing through a door on the side of the courtroom. Eric squeezed my hand as that door closed. We all stood as the judge left and then I turned to face Eric. That's when I saw the look of confusion on his face. I had become accustomed to that look, but this time it was different. I smiled at him and he kind of smiled back, but it faltered. We walked hand in hand out the door and towards the elevator. As we rode down to the parking garage, I could tell something was wrong. As soon as we were in my car, he turned to me and there were tears in his eyes. I could see that he was afraid. "What is it, Eric? Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"She was sentenced to stay in a mental facility."

"Who was?"

"Hallow."

I watched him rub his face with his good hand, then squeeze his temples. "I can't remember."

I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to him. "What _can_ you remember, honey?"

"I fired her. I was going home. I saw my car." Then he kind of shook his head. "What day is it?"

Dr. Ludwig was able to see him right away, thank goodness. She said that he apparently had regained his memory from before the head injury, but that his memories since that day were now missing. Part of me was relieved, but then another part had a whole new issue to worry about. Dr. Ludwig felt that he was making significant progress, but I longed for a day when all of his memories would be intact.

When Hallow disappeared through that courtroom door, it was as if a spell on Eric had been broken. He had gone back to himself just before that very spell had been cast the day Hallow attacked him in that parking garage. I wondered how long it would be before I had my two Erics back.

Eric

I was sitting in a courtroom with Sookie but I had no idea how I'd gotten there. I followed her to her car in the parking garage, hoping that things would make sense, but by the time I was inside her car, I was genuinely scared. Nothing was making sense to me. Sookie told me something about Hallow's sentence, but I didn't know what she was talking about. Finally, she asked what I could remember and I went back to the parking garage at Paramount when I was going home after firing Hallow. Suddenly, I felt like I was missing time and it scared the hell out of me.

Sookie took me to see a doctor who clearly knew me, but I had never seen her before in my life—I certainly would have remembered her. She was a Little Person with a very odd manner, but apparently also my neurologist. She explained about my head injury and my subsequent recovery. She had hope that my missing memories would return to me at some point, and I hoped she was right.

Sookie took me home and sat me down to explain everything that had happened to me, and I was all ears.


	11. Chapter 11

Sookie

Dr. Ludwig explained Eric's memory recovery. He remembered everything before his attack, but now the memories of the past few weeks were missing. It was all so strange.

I drove him back to his apartment. We sat on the sofa and I started at the beginning when I found him running down the street in front of my building. I told him about Hallow's moving into his apartment when the police were searching for her and how we'd surprised her and he was shot while saving my life. I left out the parts about our intimacy. I mean, I figured it would be obvious that we'd had sex, but I felt uncomfortable telling him how he had been so consumed with it and how we had done it in every room and on every piece of furniture. I also omitted his declarations that he wanted to marry me. I don't know—it just felt odd telling him how he had felt. It's one thing to explain to him what he had done and another to explain how he felt. Plus, I didn't want him to feel obligated to marry me just because that was what he'd wanted when he'd lost his memory. Now that he was back to his old self, it felt wrong to expect him to honor the promises he'd made when he wasn't himself. I felt like it was the right thing to do, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt me terribly. I had loved that we were so happy together planning our marriage and our future together and now that I was alone with those memories, it was tough.

He listened intently to everything I told him. We ordered some food and kept talking until it was getting late. I hadn't even thought about it, but assumed that I would stay over since we had slept together every night since his attack. I stood to stretch and told Eric I was tired and he offered to walk me to my car. I hoped I hid the look of surprise and hurt on my face when I realized that he wanted to be alone. But then I realized that it would make sense to the old Eric because we didn't stay together every night at all, especially on a week night. We were both so busy with our jobs. I knew that it was going to be a tough adjustment for me going back to our old lives. It's not that I wished Eric's memory loss back, but I missed my memory-impaired Eric—the one with no other interests except making me happy. Selfish, I know, but that's how I felt.

Eric kissed me goodnight at my car and I tried so hard to seem cheerful as I said goodnight, but then as soon as I pulled away from the curb, I started crying. How could I explain to anyone, especially to Eric, what I was feeling? I wanted my other Eric back.

Eric

I tried to absorb all of what Sookie told me. I trusted that she was telling me the truth, of course, but it felt so odd to hear about events of my own life that I had no memory of. The good news was that Hallow was put away and was no longer a threat to us. My shoulder still hurt of course, but it would heal eventually. Amazingly, my life was basically still intact in spite of my mental absence.

I said goodnight to Sookie, knowing that we both had to be up early to go to work. It was very unusual for us not to make love when we were together, but I had so much on my mind that that's just not where my focus was and I hoped she understood. As I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, I thought of how lucky I was to have her in my life. I loved her so much and knew that if I had it to do over again, I'd take a bullet for her any day. I was so grateful that Hallow hadn't hurt her. I honestly don't know how I could have lived with that.

I went into the office the following morning to find that the film was almost completely finished. I guess it made sense that the editing would continue in my absence, but I was a little pissed that some fairly big changes had been made without my knowledge. Felipe told me that he'd had several audience screenings and that parts had not tested well. He had actually re-shot several scenes, directing them himself, and then re-edited and re-screened the film. He was satisfied with the changes and made it clear that my input was not welcome. Naturally, I was more than a little miffed, but deferred to his authority of course. This was my first feature after all, and he was a very experienced and successful producer. It was tough, but I told him that I was on board with the changes and would continue to work with him, keeping his vision in mind rather than my own. He was after all, technically my boss.

Pam and I had lunch together and she reluctantly told me that she was having problems working for Felipe. She was torn between loyalty for me and her job. I assured her that she should not even think about that as a choice. Her career depended on working for Felipe, and she should protect her own future and job security and remain loyal to Felipe. I told her that I had declared my loyalty to him as well. Anything less would be political suicide.

Sookie

For the next couple of weeks, Eric and I fell back into our former routine. I stayed over at his apartment mostly on the weekends. We resumed our sex life, which had always been great, but I still missed that urgency that my memory-impaired Eric brought to the table (or the sofa, or the kitchen counter). I knew he was having some trouble at work and that basically Felipe was trying to take over his film, and he was very frustrated about it. I wished I could do something to help him, but for the life of me, I couldn't imagine what it would be.

Eric's shoulder was healing well. He no longer needed his sling and he had started physical therapy on it twice a week. One of his appointments was on a Saturday, so one Saturday I dropped him off and then Pam met me for an hour of shopping before we were all planning on lunch together when Eric was done. What little one-on-one time I'd had with Pam lately had been all about Eric, and so I was not caught up on her personal life at all. We were scanning the sale rack at Macy's when I asked her how her love life was going.

"Actually, I'm seeing someone."

"Really? I didn't know. Tell me about it."

"Did you ever meet Felicia? She played the bartender in the vampire bar scenes in the movie."

"No, I didn't get to meet her, but I saw some of the footage from those scenes. She's very pretty. So, how's that going?"

"Great, actually." Then Pam got that evil grin that she's famous for. I knew from experience that she was dying to tell me something really juicy.

"Okay, spill. I know you're dying to tell me something."

"Okay. I don't normally kiss and tell, but I know you'll appreciate this."

"Go on."

"Well, Felicia is into both men and women, and while we were filming, she developed a huge crush on Victor Madden—I know, I know, he's a pig, but still a gorgeous, charming pig. Anyway, it didn't take much persuading, but we spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at his beach house, just the three of us, if you know what I mean."

"You're kidding. Oh my god, how was it?"

"Well, interesting. He's not dull, I'll give him that. Let's just say I have some very interesting mementos on my camera phone of the three of us. My face and Felicia's are strategically hidden from view, but Victor is clearly recognizable in spite of the blindfold he's wearing. Oh come on, don't look so shocked. You know him. Surely you're not too surprised."

"Actually, I'm not. It's really pretty funny. Does he know you have photographic evidence?"

"No, he had no idea I was taking his picture. I just took it for the fun of it. Felicia wanted to make it her wallpaper on her computer, but I said no to that. It'll just be for our private entertainment."

"Does Eric know?"

"No, I figured Victor's sexual escapades might be a touchy subject for him. He doesn't need to know."

"You're probably right."

Eric

Work was frustrating. Felipe wanted to re-shoot several integral scenes and add a character. He had previously done a very successful gladiator movie with two famous wrestlers-turned-actors—the type that are practically cartoon versions of themselves. These two became huge WWF stars and then did a couple of films. Like a lot of those guys, they only had one name. One was Sigebert and the other was Wybert and they were brothers. Sadly, after their last film, Wybert was killed in a hotel fire. It was rumored that Sigebert had developed a drinking problem after his brother's death and gained a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. And now Felipe wanted to cast Sigebert in this new role in our film and add a bunch of scenes. I thought it was a bad idea and told him so. I knew it was not my place to cross him and he'd made it clear that this was no longer my movie, but I just felt that he was really going too far in adding this character to what was basically a finished film. We had an argument over it and I told him that I just couldn't give in to this particular demand. I felt that it would jeopardize the success of the film. I went for a walk on the lot to cool off. When I came back to my office, Felipe was there with a Paramount security guard. "Eric, I'm terminating your employment."

"Excuse me?"

"I've spoken to the studio's legal department, and I'm removing your name from the director credit and replacing it with my own. Clean out your desk, and this gentleman will escort you to your car."

And just like that, my film was taken away from me.


	12. Chapter 12

Sookie

I had just gotten home from work when Eric called, clearly very upset. He had been fired from Paramount. I told him to come over and we'd talk about it. As I hung up, I realized that he hadn't been over to my apartment since regaining his memory. The few nights we had spent together were at his place, and I thought about how much I had missed him as I slept alone in my room almost every night since the old Eric had returned.

Eric came into the apartment very agitated and upset. He explained what had happened—that Felipe had insisted on adding a character to the film and wanted to schedule re-shoots and then essentially staged a takeover of the film when Eric wouldn't comply. Eric was pacing when his phone rang. It was Pam and I listened as he told her to stay with Felipe and assure him of her loyalty. No matter what happened to Eric, he didn't want her jeopardizing her own career.

After that call, Victor called, but Eric let it go to voice mail. He said he didn't want to talk to Victor right now. I was curious what Victor might have to say about all this, but I guess Eric wasn't. Within minutes, my phone rang as well, and yes, it was Victor. I answered it and told him that Eric was busy and couldn't talk. Eric stood and shook his head and then went back into my bedroom and closed the door. I spoke briefly to Victor about what had happened and told him that I'd tell Eric that he'd called.

I walked back to the bedroom and opened the door. Eric was sitting on the bed with his face in his hands. He looked up at me with shock on his face. "Sookie, sitting here on your bed, in your room…I remember everything."

I hit my knees and took his hands in mine. "Tell me."

"I don't know, maybe it's your scent in here, maybe it's the bed. I sat right here and said 'I'll never be happier than I am right now.' You were on the floor just like that."

"That's right sweetie." I could feel the tears coming. My Eric was back.

"Why didn't you tell me? We talked about getting married. You never told me." He was still holding my hand and his other hand was wiping my tears away and caressing my face.

"I don't know. It just seemed like you already had enough to handle."

"We were together every night. I never wanted to be apart. I wanted us to get married. God, Sookie, and since then I've hardly seen you. I'm so sorry, love. I had no idea. I must have hurt you and you didn't say a word. I'm so sorry, baby."

Before he had even finished that last sentence, he was pulling me up off of the floor and he crushed me to him in a passionate kiss. He turned and pushed me back onto the bed and was on top of me in a flash in a bone-crushing embrace. My own lust was overwhelming me as our hands frantically fumbled to remove our clothes. I heard the buttons ripping off of my blouse and then he hungrily sucked my breasts through the lace of my bra. I somehow wriggled out of my panties and pulled my skirt up to my waist. I cried out as his fingers roughly found me and plunged in. He kissed his way up my neck, sucking and biting and I vaguely thought that's going to leave a mark as I unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and then pushed his pants and boxers down to his hips. He entered me with a loud grunt and we were both out of our minds as he pounded into me. It was frantic and wild, as if he couldn't get deep enough inside of me. His mouth found mine and we both moaned mindlessly in rhythm with each powerful thrust. I felt the tears streaming down the sides of my face and held him as tightly as I could as we both came hard, trembling and shuddering together. When he was still, I stroked his hair while his face was buried in my neck and I cried quietly at the joy of having my Eric back.

Eric

Sookie was on the phone with Victor when I went into her room and closed the door. I just wanted to be alone for a minute. I sat on the bed and suddenly my memories of her and this room flooded back to me. I closed my eyes and put my face in my hands and remembered everything—running down the street, staying at Sookie's apartment, discovering her in the shower, falling in love with her as if it was all new—because it was new to me at the time. Then I thought of that article about her and Victor and how upset I was and then Hallow shooting the gun, and I jumped in front of Sookie. Then I remembered being in the hospital and wondering why we weren't married. I wanted to be with her every minute of every day and we made love all day long some days and planned our future together. In just a minute, weeks of memories filled my mind and then Sookie came into the room.

I told her that I remembered and then realized how much it must have hurt her when I couldn't remember. She'd had a boyfriend who couldn't get enough of her every single minute and wanted nothing more that to spend the rest of his life with her, and then suddenly she got her old boyfriend back—the one who was work-obsessed and far less attentive. And yet, she'd never said a word to me. She sacrificed her own happiness so that I could pick up my old life with no regrets. Suddenly, I loved her more than I ever had and pulled her to me and we made love with a fevered urgency that consumed us both. I couldn't get enough of her once again.

Sookie

Over the next few days, Pam kept us informed about what was going on with the film. Felipe was moving forward with his new idea of re-shoots and casting Sigebert in the new role. But then Paramount pulled the plug on his plan and suddenly there was no money in the budget for the new scenes. Eric and I wondered what that would mean for the film. We were kind of waiting to see what happened before we called an attorney, but one way or another, Eric was going to get credit for his work. I promised him that.

A new piece of the puzzle emerged within days of learning that the re-shoots were cancelled. Felipe DeCastro was on the cover of every tabloid one morning and every headlined declared him gay and finally out of the closet. I had no idea what was going on but I became determined to find out.


	13. Chapter 13

Sookie

Anytime Eric or I had a question about the film or Felipe, we naturally called Pam. She always had the scoop. Unfortunately, when it came to the new tabloid scandal, she was clueless. We all knew that Felipe was not gay, and wondered why someone would leak such silly lies to the press. Who would be mad enough at Felipe to do such a thing? I started making a mental list of people that should be pissed at Felipe right now and could think of no one except Eric and maybe that guy Sigebert who was out of a job in a big movie.

I called some of my contacts at the tabloids and started doing a little digging around and sure enough, I got an unofficial confirmation that Sigebert may have leaked the story. I went on the internet and read all I could find about the movie Felipe had produced in which the brothers starred. I wondered who would know the real dirt. Again, I called Pam because she knew the most of anyone else in that office. While I had her on the phone I suddenly had an idea. "Pam, can you find out who Felipe's assistant was on that gladiator movie?"

"I don't see why not. Let me make a few calls."

By the end of the day I had a meeting scheduled with Victor's former assistant.

The following morning I met Sandy Sechrest for coffee at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She was now a successful producer herself and had nothing but praise to offer about Felipe. I may have fudged a touch and led her to believe that I was Felipe's publicist and was trying to fix the tabloid scandal. She wanted nothing more than to help Felipe in any way she could. She insisted that there was no truth to the gay rumor, and we both agreed that whoever planted that story had a bone to pick with Felipe and it was personal. I casually asked if she knew anything about Felipe's relationship with Sigebert and she said that poor Sigebert was having such a hard time getting work and had gone through a terrible depression after his brother's death. He had called her several times and asked for meetings regarding work on her current project and swore that he was now clean and sober, but there were simply no parts in her film for him and she told him she would keep him in mind for future projects. He asked if he could have that in writing and she kind of got the creeps from the way he said it. She said that he seemed kind of threatening to her and she hardly knew him. She could only imagine how much he must have pressured Felipe because they were fairly close after shooting the gladiator film. Before we parted she said, "You know. I don't know if you're aware of it, but Felipe and I actually dated briefly."

"Really? Is that a secret?"

"Not at all. That's why I thought you may have already known about it."

"So, you'd be comfortable talking about it publicly?"

"Of course."

I thanked her for her time and went back to my office and made a plan to find Sigebert myself.

The following day I had a lunch meeting with Sigebert. He recognized me from my own tabloid scandal and I explained that I was Eric's girlfriend but that I was also a publicist at Herveaux Public Relations. I told him the truth—that I wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on with Felipe and him and the film. Surprisingly, he was really a nice guy and openly discussed the situation once I'd told him that I knew he was the source of the gay tabloid scandal. He had fallen on hard times and was having trouble getting work and first asked Felipe for a part in the vampire film. When he said no, Sigebert got desperate and threatened to blackmail Felipe if he didn't write him a part.

"Blackmail him with what?"

"Well, that's the funny thing. I don't actually have anything on Felipe. He's squeaky clean and a decent guy as far as I can tell. But I told him that my brother Wybert had told me something that I would use against him, but I was completely bluffing. It spooked him enough though and before I knew it, he had written me a part and we were scheduling the shoot. Unfortunately, your boyfriend wasn't on board with the changes to his film and Felipe canned him. But then the studio wouldn't approve the re-shoot anyway and the part went away. I was so pissed. I fell off the wagon and got really drunk and I know it was shitty of me, but I just lost it and that's when I called the tabloids and told them that Felipe was gay. I'm sorry now that I did it. I was just so frustrated and mad at the time, and drunk, but I know that's not an excuse. I could take it back now, but you and I both know that my retraction would never make the front page or really maybe any page at all."

"You know what, let me worry about that. Would you be willing to take it back?"

"Yes, I would. I really do feel bad about it. Felipe's a nice guy and my brother thought he hung the moon."

"I'll call you later and let you know what I need from you, okay?"

"Okay. You know I hear really good things about Eric Northman's work. I know he'll be fine in spite of what just happened at Paramount. Talent's talent. He'll land on his feet. I'm sorry that I may have had a part in why he was fired."

"I'll tell you what. Fix this mess you've made and I'll tell him that you're a stand up guy. I'm not saying he'll give you a part or even a reading, but it's a place to start. I know he's got a bright future and there will be more films. But you can't go around threatening people to get work."

"I know, I know. Like I said, I am sorry."

I left feeling more than a twinge of guilt, knowing that I myself had used a form of blackmail to get Victor Madden on Eric's first film. This sure is a strange town and a crazy business. I wasn't sure how happy I was that I seemed to be learning how it worked so quickly and that I was fitting right in.

Things at home were going great in spite of Eric's losing his job. He and I had spent every night together since he had recovered all of his memory and he was so sweet to me. He had started writing a script, expanding a story he had started in film school and when he mentioned once that he was really still burned about Felipe I told him that it wasn't over 'til it's over. He didn't know that I'd already started the wheels turning to get to the bottom of things and hopefully to get him his job back so he would get credit for all of his hard work.

Eric

Maybe it was because I had just gone through the trauma of losing my memory not once but twice and also recovering from being shot by a stalker, but I was taking the loss of my film fairly well. I felt like I had learned a lot about what was really important, and what mattered the most to me was Sookie. I could always get another film or at the very least another job, but what I had found and then rediscovered with Sookie was what was really important. I wanted to be with her every night and was more determined than ever to marry her. Of course, I needed to make more money, but there were always other ways to make money. Rather than dwelling on the lost film, I decided to make my own work and started writing again. I pulled out an old script idea and poured myself into that and was really enjoying it. And, of course I was really enjoying Sookie as well.


	14. Chapter 14

Sookie

Before I went to work fixing Felipe DeCastro's reputation, I called Pam and Victor Madden. I needed their cooperation first if my plan was going to work. Pam was more than happy to help and told me that she got a wicked thrill when I told her what I had in mind. She's quite a character. And Victor…well…he was Victor, and responded just as I'd expected him to do.

I also spoke to Sandy Sechrest. She was also happy to help me with my plan.

I called my contacts at the tabloids and set up phone interviews with Sigebert. I gave him his schedule of calls to make and told him what to say (he assured me that it was the truth). He reiterated that he didn't think his retraction would get printed, but I assured him that I had already taken care of that.

Sure enough, true to their word, all the writers made certain that their story was on the cover the very next day. There were photos of Sigebert in full gladiator garb beside red carpet shots of Felipe. The headlines read: Gladiator lied, DeCastro's not gay, Apology from Sigebert: Felipe, I know you're straight. I read through the articles and sure enough, Sandy had confirmed the story and spoken openly about her romance with Felipe. I sighed a breath of relief and called Eric to let him know that I was planning on inviting Felipe over for dinner that night. He asked if I was crazy and I said that maybe I was, but that hopefully that was a good thing.

I called Felipe and asked if he could come over and have dinner with me and Eric. He sounded surprised, but said yes. Maybe he was curious. Maybe he thought I was crazy as well. Who knows.

I stopped at the store on my way home from work and bought the tabloids as well as food to fix for dinner. When I got to Eric's, he was cleaning the kitchen and immediately started helping me cook. The food was delicious. Felipe complimented me on my cooking several times. As I was serving dessert and coffee, I placed the tabloids on the table in front of him. "I just wanted to make sure you saw these." I'm not sure who looked more surprised, Felipe or Eric.

"Did you do this?" Felipe was the first to ask.

"Yes, I did. And no, Eric didn't know. It was my own idea and I wanted to be the one to get the blame if it failed."

"But why would you do this? Why would you help me after I fired Eric?"

"Because it's the right thing to do. I know how the press can ruin lives. It's certainly done a number on my own life as well as Eric's. It's a powerful force. But it makes me mad when it hurts innocent people, even if those people fired my boyfriend."

He stared at me for a long moment. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. And now I hope you'll do the right thing as well."

He turned to a still stunned Eric. "Eric, can you start back tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll be there. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I hope you'll accept my apology and we can finish the film together."

They shook hands and we all celebrated with a little chocolate cake.

As Felipe was leaving, he asked if I would walk him down to his car. When we got to the street he said, "So, I know that retractions like that never make the front page. How did you pull that off?"

"You'll find out in the morning."

He was smiling, but then got very serious. "I may regret this, but I want to tell you something. You really went out of your way to help me and I feel like I owe you an explanation." I started to speak but he held his hand up for me to stop. "You probably know by now that I fired Eric so I could hire Sigebert. He has something on me—something that I don't want to get out." This time I did interrupt him, but he stopped me again. "No, let me finish before I lose my nerve. I'm not gay, but I guess I am bisexual. What Sigebert knows that no one else does, except now you, is that I was in love with his brother, Wybert. I had never been with a man, and haven't since, but I fell in love with him. It lasted for a year, and I never told a soul. I don't really care so much about my own reputation. A gay or bisexual movie producer in this town is really not that big of a deal. But I was protecting Wybert's memory. As you can imagine, that kind of information would come as a shock to his fans and he's no longer here to defend himself or make his own decision whether to come out of the closet or not. I didn't want to take that away from him even though he's gone. I really did love him."

I was stunned silent and just reached up and hugged Felipe. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know. And just so you know, neither does Sigebert. He told me himself that he was bluffing when he said he had something on you. And he's very sorry. He said he would call you tomorrow to apologize. I hope you take his call and that you can forgive him. And what you just told me will go with me to my grave. You have my word."

"If he didn't know, then it was just some bizarre coincidence that he told the press I'm gay?" I nodded yes. "What are the odds?" Apparently pretty good.

Eric

Sookie called from work and said she was inviting Felipe over for dinner. I thought she'd lost her mind, but then when I saw the tabloids and she explained what she'd done, I was in awe. She'd clearly won Felipe over and I couldn't have been prouder. By the end of her very busy day, she had manipulated the press to recover Felipe's reputation, fixed an amazing meal, gotten me my job back and ultimately the credit for doing my work. And then she walked Felipe down to his car, most likely winning him over even more with her charm. I was loading the dishwasher when she came back in. She started to help me and I told her to sit down and relax—that the least I could do was clean the kitchen after she had single-handedly saved my career. She smiled and watched me, perched on the barstool at the end of the kitchen counter. As I was finishing, I pressed start and the dishwasher began it's hum and she walked towards me and pulled my head down to kiss her. Her tongue found mine and we stood and held each other and kissed for a long time, just enjoying the feel of each other. Then she pushed me back until I felt the counter against my back. She broke the kiss and gave me a wicked smile as she undid my pants and slowly slid down my body until she was on her knees. She smiled up at me as she took me in her mouth. I watched with eternal fascination as my beautiful girlfriend did everything just perfectly just to please me. It's hard to believe that when we were first together that she was so inexperienced. Even then she was amazing, but now she was a grand master. She took her time and I had to reach back and grip the counter with both hands to keep my knees from buckling. I tried to keep my eyes on her amazing lips and hands, but as I came my head involuntarily rolled back and my eyes closed and I think I said, "oh my god," but I doubt if it sounded that clear. As she stood and wrapped her arms around my waist and rocked me gently from side to side I just wondered what I had ever done to deserve this incredible woman.


	15. Chapter 15

Sookie

The photograph on the cover of every tabloid the next morning was of a very happy, naked, and blindfolded (but still clearly recognizable) Victor Madden. The two beautiful naked women with him were not recognizable. Both had their faces turned away from camera and any features of their bodies that may have made them identifiable were covered with strategically placed black rectangles. Victor's very handsome body only had one black rectangle and it was a little larger than it needed to be (trust me, I knew this to be a fact).

My phone started ringing as soon as I walked into the office. Felipe thanked me for dinner and for bribing the tabloids with Victor's photo in exchange for clearing Felipe's name. He said that I had his eternal gratitude and loyalty for saving his reputation (and Eric's job) from the drunken wrath of Sigebert. I had done it because it was the right thing to do and I did hope that it would help Eric, but I wasn't oblivious to the fact that having the loyalty of someone as powerful at Felipe DeCastro was nothing to sneeze at. I silently gave myself a little pat on the back as I said good bye to Felipe.

Eric called and asked if he wanted to know how I'd gotten that photo. I said that he probably didn't want to know—certainly didn't need to know. But I was quick to point out that neither of the two anonymous females was me. He just chuckled and said, "Good to know."

Pam texted me and just said, "Nice job, my girl. All is well here in our little corner of tinseltown."

At eleven a.m. a huge floral arrangement was delivered to Herveaux Public Relations. All eyes followed the delivery guy into my office. The card read:

To my favorite publicist,

Thank you for keeping me on top of the A-list.

Forever in your debt, Victor Madden

Eric

My film must have had the most press in the history of Hollywood, and that was all before we had even begun our promotion. The opening was so highly anticipated that most theaters were sold out in advance for the entire opening weekend. I was pleased of course, as was Paramount, that it was making money, but I was even more interested in what the critics had to say. For the most part, the reviews were very good, but a few of the critics called Felipe's last minute changes "formula" and suggested we'd sold out and made the film more predictable. I tried not to say I told you so to Felipe. I was, at the end of it all, very grateful to him for his mentoring and hard work. Without his help, I never would have had such an opportunity. And without Pam's loyalty, I never would have met Felipe.

But the person I was most thankful for of course was Sookie. She was my rock, my best friend, my biggest supporter, and the love of my life. The night of the Hollywood premiere her beauty took my breath away as she smiled and waved to the cameras. The lights caught the twinkle of the tiny diamond on her left hand and I heard more than one reporter joke that the press was so good before this film's release that the director actually proposed to his publicist. Naturally, they didn't know the real story. That was our private affair.

Sookie

It was so great to see Eric back at work doing what he loved. In spite of the mess between him and Felipe, they were able to work together to finish the film. Eric said that he would always be grateful to Felipe for his help in starting Eric's film career, and he learned a lot—not just about filmmaking but about politics in the film business. Just having talent wasn't necessarily enough in this town.

I was so proud of Eric and his film. Alcide let me handle a lot of the press on it myself and I really gave it my all. Even Alcide's father noticed and congratulated me personally on a job well done.

In spite of our busy schedules, Eric and I spent almost every night together. We picked right back up on the marriage discussion once Eric's memory had completely returned. Both of us realized that the memory-impaired Eric that so sweetly and innocently wondered why we weren't already married also had no concept of how we would live on my income alone or how Eric would spend his days. The Eric that I had now still had the desire to marry me, but it was tempered with the practical. We both agreed that once the film was released and we could see his future career a little clearer, then we could make some big decisions. Eric wanted to have more in the bank and be able to buy me a big fat diamond and a house. I was just as content in his one-bedroom apartment and would have accepted a ring from a cracker jack box, but I know how these things are tied to the male ego.

So, just like in any successful marriage, we compromised. We agreed that we would keep our apartments for now, and continue our habit of using Eric's more than mine. I told him that I'd rather save our money for a house than an expensive diamond, and he said okay for now.

We had been to Venice one night to have dinner with Pam, and after dinner, Eric suggested we drive along the coast for a bit. We parked and walked out to the sand with an old blanket tucked under Eric's arm. We sat in silence and watched the waves, the full moon reflected perfectly on the water's surface. Eric fished into his pants pocket and held up a ring. I held out my left hand and felt the tears fall as he placed it on my finger. Our eyes met and we kissed for a long time before he asked, "Will you marry me?" I just nodded yes and we held hands and sighed a deep sigh as we went back to watching the waves together.

I thought back to when we met and all the silly mess we made of our relationship when we were in college. I knew I loved him even before we were together, but little did I know then that he would be the man I'd marry and the love of my life.

Later Eric promised to someday replace the modest diamond with a larger one, but I told him that I loved the one I had and said, "Good luck getting it off my finger." We both laughed, but I meant it. I loved it and thought it was just perfect.

I thoroughly enjoyed showing my ring off the night of Eric's premiere. We had told a few close friends and family about our plans, but to really have the world know was something special. I couldn't have been prouder of Eric and all his hard work. We both knew that my hard work also played a part in getting us to that particular night. The film was a big hit. The critics were kind for the most part and it was predicted to make a mint, which was, in many ways, even more important. After all, it's called show business, not show art.

Just prior to the film's release, Eric signed with a big agent and the offers were already pouring in. He had his pick of films to direct next and most of the offers came with paychecks ten to twenty times the size of Felipe's. We were already talking about which neighborhoods we'd like to live in and I was designing a big white dress in my head. There's no denying that Eric and I had had a rocky road to get to this place together, but all those trials and tribulations made us who we are as a couple. And maybe because of them, we both treasured our rosy future just a little bit more.

XXX

A/N: Please enjoy the sequel Love Still Isn't Easy next.


End file.
